A constitutional monarchy and member of the Commonwealth, Papua New Guinea is situated in the southwestern Pacific Ocean and comprises the eastern part of the island of New Guinea, the islands of the Bismarck, Kiriwina (Trobriand), Louisiade, and D’Entrecasteaux groups, Muyua (Woodlark) Island and other nearby islands, and parts of the Solomon Islands, including Bougainville. Area: 462,840 sq km (178,704 sq mi). Pop. (1993 est.): 3,918,000. Cap.: Port Moresby. Monetary unit: kina, with (Oct. 4, 1993) a free rate of 0.99 kina to U.S. $1 (1.50 kinas = £ 1 sterling). Queen, Elizabeth II; governor-general in 1993, Wiwa Korowi; prime minister, Paias Wingti.

Amid uproar and dismay in the Papua New Guinea Parliament, Prime Minister Paias Wingti outmaneuvered his political opposition by resigning on Sept. 23, 1993, and being reelected almost simultaneously. This legitimate strategy saved him and his Cabinet from facing a vote of no confidence in the foreseeable future. The nation’s constitution restricted the number of no-confidence motions that could be made in a 12-month period.

Wingti, who first became prime minister in 1985 after leading a no-confidence motion against Michael Somare, made a deliberate effort in 1993 to turn the direction of the nation’s foreign policy focus toward Asia. He argued, following visits to Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, that the challenge for Papua New Guinea was to find its place in the Asia-Pacific regional economy of the 21st century.

Wingti’s main obstacles to his dream were not simply the difficulty in attracting investors to Papua New Guinea but also in guaranteeing physical security for foreign nationals and local citizens. Accordingly, because of the problems with law enforcement that continued to trouble the nation in 1993, he announced a system of national registration. Papua New Guineans traveling from their homes to anywhere in the country would be required to carry identification that included their names and addresses. A.R.G. Griffiths

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island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It encompasses the eastern half of New Guinea, the world’s second largest island (the western half is made up of the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua); the Bismarck Archipelago (New Britain, New Ireland, the Admiralty Islands, and...